Left 4 Dead: Nihon
by HunterSeeker1029
Summary: A foreign exchange student in Japan teams up with the natives to fight against the Green Flu epidemic. The problem is, the other natives of the island nation have suddenly become not so friendly. And very violent. In journal format.
1. Chapter 1

**Putting my Europa story on hold for a bit I decided to do a different story after 1) reading a certain zombie novel, and 2) after watching Highschool of the Dead (no, none of the characters from that anime are here).**

**This story was inspired by the wonderful zombie novel, "Day by Day Armageddon", which was in journal format. This kind of writing is foreign to me, and I'm using it in a very experimental way, so don't expect it to be phenomenal writing!**

**September 28, 2010**

Well, I promised to begin writing in a journal. Not sure what to begin saying in the first entry. I guess an introduction isn't out of the question. I'm an American foreign exchange student at Komae High School, about two months in, and I'm a senior. I can easily see how disappointed those anime freaks back at home will be if they ever go to school here. No one has colored hair, and school is not filled with conflicted, magic-imbued, big-breasted girls. Oh yeah, and the language barrier. I've learned basic Japanese, but I'm barely passing my classes. Certainly I see room for improvement, but for now it's tense at best.

Not too many friends around here thanks to my horrendous Japanese. Not too many English speakers either, though there's probably a few lingering around, I'm just too busy with classes to really make friends now. I'm really going to have to get used to the food here. Sure, you have your American junk food, but my host family insists on "assimilation" into Japanese culture, which includes eating their food. Which is sea food.

Some interesting news from the States. Some flu's spreading around, probably another H1N1 virus. Somehow, I find that comforting; that cold from last week was God-awfully painful. Thankfully, my host family has English channels, which is where I got this recent news from. I don't tune in to these channels that often, since I want to immerse in as much Japanese as I can.

Anything else I could rant on? Not that I can think of. I'm half-asleep; I'll finish this later.

**October 1, 2010**

Sorry, Journal for the four days of silence. Busy as a bee here. A couple of things going on now. In school today, I tried out my Japanese with some other kids. Instead of saying "I'm tired today," I said "my food is boring today," as my host family explained when I asked them why those kids were giggling madly. They're still pretty cool people though. I have some interesting conversations with them in my limited Japanese, and they seem delighted to practice their English on me.

Still, I feel like an alien. I get quite the number of looks for my non-Oriental looks. Well, you can't please everyone. And by "everyone" I mean nearly the entire population of Japan.

That flu back in the States isn't H1N1, but it's sure as hell causing more of a panic than swine flu did. It's media name is "Green Flu", which is interesting I guess. I could have thought of a better name. Bird flu? Cow flu? Otaku flu? I don't know. Sounds like whoever's getting sick acts messed up. I really don't know; my studies beckon.

**October 11, 2010**

My studies can wait. Looks like this flu's getting bad. There's actually already been cases of it outside the United States. Those who are infected act violently. Mad cow disease? Rabies? I phoned my relatives and parents today, to check and see if they're all right. Nothing. Either all the phone lines are busy or they've just stopped working. I can only hope they're all right. My parents live in Tiverton, Rhode Island, about an hour from Providence. They might be OK, but then again it's the East Coast, where this Green Flu started. My relatives are in Austin, which has about 500,000 people. I'll try to put my mind off them for now; after all my uncle possesses several firearms, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Back on this massive island, I've begun to realize that I'm slacking off on my Economics stocks portfolio. Also, I've tasted fried squid for the first time. I'll spare the details of the aftermath. One more thing. The school announced today that all after school clubs have been cancelled, which sucks. I was REALLY looking forward to joining that board game club. What, do they think Green Flu has reached here? I want to think no.

**October 13, 2010**

The virus has reached pandemic proportions. It's like the damn Spanish Flu; even remote Pacific countries have reported cases of it. The World Health Organization and CDC said that the virus makes people extremely violent indefinitely. Basically zombies, except really fucking violent ones. It's spread through fluidic contact, so that means biting, or infected blood getting in a wound or whatever. It's a rapidly mutating virus, and it's airborne sporadically, which makes no sense. How can a virus be airborne one minute, and not the next?

But two things disturbed me the most. The first was footage in New York City, from a helicopter circling Manhattan. There were massive fires in the city. It looked like Hell incarnate. The reporter was frantically going on about how the city is in a mass panic. Traffic is non-existent. You can see hundreds of black, moving dots below, like viewing an ant hill that's just been disturbed. The other disturbance? There's been confirmed cases of Green Flu right here in Tokyo. Fuck modern mass transportation.

**October 15, 2010**

Christ, it's a war zone in the major cities, and not just in the States. I saw a tank run over whole mobs of people before stopping to shoot at a building in Los Angeles. Soldiers blew open doors and fired their weapons at unseen targets in Rome. The news is in a frenzy, and the talking heads are getting so annoying and repetitive that I simply drone them out.

Earlier today I had a talk with my host family, whom I unfortunately haven't really gotten into any detail. Junichi Susumu, my "father", and Moriko Umeko, my "mother" had considered moving out of the city, although we still have not seen any signs of Green Flu yet. I convinced them (at least, I hope I did) that Green Flu could very well burn out in a few weeks, and it will eventually get under control. I'm not sure if I convinced myself.

**December 16, 2012**

Well, isn't this fun. I'm currently barricaded in Komae High School, on the roof. Want to hear my story Journal? Oh, I bet you do. School was still going on, despite the clear uninterest of the students being teached and the teachers instructing, everyone's mind undoubtly on the news of the Tokyo outbreak. Apparently it was a safe distance from here, on the outskirts of the city.

Yeah, no. I found out the hard way that there where people not only infected in the vicinity, but infected inside the school. Several dozen, in fact.

It was in Calculus. Our teacher was absentmindedly lecturing us with notes on Leibniz's notation, when one of the students drew the attention of everyone by announcing she was feeling unwell. She certainly looked it. Her eyes were sunken, skin pale, and apparently having trouble breathing. Before the teacher could respond she gave something that was between a snarl and a scream, turned on the nearest student, and launched herself at him, a murderous look on her face.

The teacher thought it was a fight, tried to separate them. The girl turned, making incoherent noises, and threw herself at him now, punching, scratching, _biting _him. Realizing what she was sick with, seemingly at the same time, the entire classroom begin to come alive. Looking at them, I realized that there was more than one sick individual in the room. I was the first out the door, and I'm glad I was.

At that moment, the principal had made an announcement calling for order to be maintained in the school, which made me realize, at the fringe of my terrified brain, that our class was not the only one with an infected person. The entire school had deteriorated into swarming mobs of people, all in a terrified bid for freedom. I'm not sure how many people I punched, trampled, or shoved to get to safety, but by the time I made it to somewhere that wasn't a massive mob of students, I had enough bruises to look as though I was in a bar brawl.

Hundreds of footsteps, accompanied by collective shouting of 1,200 students, echoed all around as I continued to go to wherever I had planned to go, which was nowhere. I only knew that the more stairwells I put between me and that girl, the more safe I would be.

Only, that wasn't the case.

I saw several figures blocking the rooftop access. Their pale skin and erratic movements told me that something was very wrong with them. Their eyes lifted up to mine, and I saw something unnaturally disturbing that made me freeze in place.

At that moment, the rooftop access door swung open, and three people stepped into the room. One had what looked like a butcher's knife that was dripping with fresh blood; another had a handgun, and it wasn't until later that I realized how odd it was for a gun to be in a Japanese school; and the last had a fire ax.

I guess their appearance brought me to my senses, because suddenly I had drawn my pocket knife, plunging it into the nearest infected person, whom was gabbering in a primal frenzy. The knife didn't seem to unfaze the man in the slightest, even though I stabbed him where the heart should be. He was snarling, angrily rasping…and then he collapsed with a final whimper.

After retrieving the knife from the infected man, I turned to see that the other three infected had already been dispatched by the other two strangers, both also students, a guy with long, unkempt hair, who held the gun, and a girl who was taller than me by a full head. They spoke in their Oriental, evasive language, and I assumed they were asking if I was alright, to which I nodded.

So a few awkward phrases of introduction later, I found their names are Haruka, Junichi (the long-haired guy, who I swear is a Japanese equivalent of a punk rocker), and the tall girl, Maiko. We had attracted unwanted attention in our scuffle, and several infected were coming from the stairwell, screaming and growling. Giving them one last look I followed the others to the roof, and now we are barricaded here.

It's evening now. I can look out and see that the city has literally exploded into chaos. The smell of smoke and death never quite goes away. I can see raging fires, lighting up the night with an errie, bright spectacle; and cars wildly swerving in the streets. Sirens, screaming, but there isn't much gunfire, which isn't a surprise in Japan.

The other three are conversing in rapid Japanese, and I care only to catch a few words of what they're saying. It looks like they know each other well. I'm as far away from the barricade as I can. Their rigorous pounding is grinding on my nerves.


	2. Chapter 2

**Kind of a short entry…but that's because the next chapter is sizeable. **

**December 17, 2012**

We woke up to the new sounds of the city, although the pounding on the barricade has stopped. Maiko was leaning over the railing, peering downward. Following her gaze, I looked down to witness a spectacle.

There were hundreds of them down there, slouching about. They all looked infected, with deathly pale skin and erratic movements. But what was disturbing is that they just look like sick people, at least from this distance. Some are puking, others seem to be shivering violently, trying to make themselves warm. Some seem to be holding their head or stomach in pain, and from this distance I can see several of their expressions as grimacing, or in genuine pain. Still others get into violent fist fights, which don't end until one of them is dead.

I'm not sure if calling them "zombies" is a right expression. "Zombies" are usually dead people, but these Infected are very much alive, which somehow makes it much more scarier to me than those horror movie creatures. Shooting and killing sick people isn't quite the same as shooting and killing walking corpses.

Maiko muttered something, and I caught "lots". I meekly replied with "yes, there are" and turned towards Junichi and Haruka, whom were both whispering quietly to each other. The barricade still hasn't given, although we can hear an occasional grunt or hushed snarl from behind the barrier.

We were all startled by a huge, overwhelming roar, and a gush of wind swept me off my feet. Looking above, I saw three jets soar overhead, and recognized them as F-18s, either American or Japanese I couldn't tell. They dropped their payload on a distant section of the city, and the resulting explosion shook me to my bones. A new section of the city caught fire, and added to the bazaar of flames already engulfing the city. Several other jets swooped in, unleashed their destruction, and screamed back to wherever they came from.

The smoke has given everything a hellish red look, the sun only a distant, weakly shining shadow. I stared at the city for what seemed like hours until I was approached by the other three, whom had been conversing for some time. "We are leaving", Haruka said in my tongue, and I assumed she was the most fluent in English.

Despite everything, I shook my head. "Only Japanese", I said in their Oriental tongue. "I need to improve." Looking slightly bemused, she shrugged and repeated what she said, except in that elusive Asian language. I nodded in agreement.

As of now, we're preparing to leave through the other roof access. I hope you get another entry from me Journal.


	3. Chapter 3

**December 17, 2012 (Evening)**

I'm not sure where to begin.

We didn't encounter a lot of Infected for several floors (save for the two or three near the barricade, whom were quickly dispatched), but the lower we got the thicker the crowds got. They don't seem attracted towards the sounds of us attacking their compatriots until we get close, which is a Godsend; picking them off individually without attracting the others helps. Still, whole groups of them would sometimes come after us, which would set off a chain reaction of entire mobs sprinting towards us. I'm not sure how many doors we've put between them and us.

Oh, and I found a machete. Not gonna tell you where.

Running down a hallway, the new echoes of the school around us, we came around a corner to see a small horde of them all pounding on a door in a collective, raging frenzy. Junichi said something which I didn't make out, but he seemed to come to the same conclusion I did. Whatever those Infected wanted it was on the other side of that door.

There was only about twelve of them. Junichi squeezed off several rounds with the pistol (which had a silencer on it; again, not sure where he got a gun in Japan), and several of them dropped. Four more were dispatched from afar before we closed in. My adrenaline kicking into full steam, I plunged my machete into the first Infected, dropping it. Haruka and Maiko were at the front, dispatching other ghouls, and I couldn't help but realize how tough and not wussy these ladies were.

When the brawl was over, I opened the mutilated door and cautiously poked my head in, calling for anyone. Two silhouettes were there in the darkened room, and at my voice they seemed to perk up, cautiously approaching. They were both students, girls, who regarded me first cautiously, then exhaled. They hugged me, speedily thanking me and chattering other things I didn't understand before I pulled away and, offering a meek "thank you", had Maiko quickly explain to them that they were welcome to join us, to which they accepted.

With the calls of the Infected behind us we made haste. By the time we got to the first floor my machete had what I'm sure is a permanent red tint, and I was gasping for air. The two newcomers helped in however they could, one of them even pepper spraying a stray Infected at one point, but until they were armed, they were baggage at best to us.

The first floor was swarming with them, and we got into close encounters with death several times, but after many body parts were dismembered we made it to the school parking lot, which did not have as much of them wandering around. There were cars trashed everywhere, a few of them even being overturned. The turned towards us, their jittery movements making them look like overgrown, rabid squirrels.

Junichi fired, but only took down one of them. The other four closed the distance between us rapidly. The one nearest to me was dead set on mauling me, but I had other ideas. I raised the machete as a bayonet and, when she was close enough, I jammed it towards her head, making contact with her chin. She shivered once and dropped to the ground. Turning, I saw another wrestling with Maiko, gnashing his teeth, snarling. Haruko leaped forward, driving her butcher's knife into the back of the mealy mouth bastard. The last infected had leaped atop one of the girls, and a scream came that I will not forget. He had bitten into her, tearing out a chunk of her cheek. Me being nearest, I ran the blade through the Infected. The girl didn't look good. I noticed her wound wasn't bleeding very much, even though the man took a clear bite out of her.

The Infected outside the parking lot were closing in rapidly from every direction. I carried the girl to the rest of the group, Junichi taking the lead to what I presume was his car. Luckily it was enough to carry all of us, but that didn't matter now; the injured girl's condition was deteriorating; she began to feel colder by the second.

We had managed to make inside the car and out of the parking lot, the Infected pounding outside our car like angry rioters.

While Junichi was at the wheel, furiously avoiding the jammed and destroyed roads (along with packs of Infected), a new sound broke out from the frantic Japanese they were pelting each other with. The injured girl turned towards me, and looking into her eyes I knew she had turned. Her friend seemed to think so too, and meekly uttered what I suppose was her name.

The Infected surged towards me, scratching and punching me until I jabbed the machete into her side, and she collapsed in a heap, unmoving.

We're currently in some shop, our car having been overtaken by throngs of them. That door's bound to break, but that was the least of our concerns. The deceased girl's friend, Chizuko, was unceasingly accusing me of murdering her best friend, while the others were probably deciding on how to best kill me since I was infected. This being the one good time for a translator, I told them, through Haruka, that we weren't infected, or else all of us would have turned hours ago.

"We don't know how long it takes to turn!" Junichi had said, stabbing the air with his pistol. "No, we don't," I retorted, "but we do know that none of us had turned yet." This argument didn't hold up with Chizuko, who was still sobbing, continuing to bombard me with obscure insults and threats. "Then why did her friend turn?" Maiko uttered. "Maybe it depends on how much of the virus you get, or where you're bitten, I don't fucking know," I countered. "Americans, you Americans, so happy with violence!" Chizuko said vehemently. I didn't need Haruka to understand that.

Eventually we agreed that if any of us turned we would dispatch of them, no questions asked. Our argument only seemed to agitate our crowd outside, and it wasn't until later that we found bars to put down on the door, specifically made to withstand riots. It won't hold forever, but it'll do for now. Goodnight Journal.


End file.
